Chekse composition and method of preparing the same



* ms 4' A 2,239,526

f*UNlTEDfTSTATES PATENT orncs "mews onus: ooiirosmos-asnu's'mon or surname-manna re... e:

mflew 1 h New amide-1m 7 i This invention relates to cheese compositions cheese'to is preferablyavoidand methods oi'preparlng the same. noreipar- 1 ed. 'lhe cheese selected as a starting material ticuiarly,the inventionconcerns spray'able cheese maybe any cheese in a cured marketable conand oil compositions and the preparation thereof. dition which is suitable in flavor. For example,

the iatused asthe i.

Various low moisture compositions have been aged American or other cheese oi good-flavor proposed heretoifore, known as cheese spray" around 40% moisture may be emmixtures, which have been design d for applicaployed. 'Hiis cheese is first creamed by forcing tion to crackers, popcorn-or the liheby'sprayit under high pressure through a plurality oi -ing. These products have eonsistedoi well desmall openings, such as those of a woven wire iin'ed discrete particles of suspmded in 10' screen or about 30 mesh. After passing through .a fat or oil, such fat or oil being a solid at room the screen. the cheese is immediately forced temperaturesin order to hold the cheese particles through extrusion orifices about inch in diin suspension. Buch compositicnshave ameter. This creaming oi the cheese by extru tinctiy limited in. the proportionoi cheese that sion, conditions itin such a waythatthe use could be satisfactorily with the fat, and o! agents is rendered unnecessary relatively high spraying'tempera'tureshave been and the'eheue readily breaks down to form an necessarybecauseoi the high point oi emulsion with water upon the addition oi heatl V i 1 -Buillcie'nt water is then'mixed with thecreamed Cheese compositions which comprise a susextruded cheese to form a cheese-in-water emul-y ns'ionoi' discrete cheese. partlclesin a solid. sion containing about solids. This'may be i are also very diiiicult; it not impossible. to accomplished by vigorous agitation, either using spray by the usual apparatus when they contain agitation or stirring devices, or by pumping the more than 50% cheese. l br these reasons cheese and water mixture iapidly through a circheese compositionscontaining less than 50% f cul'atingsystem. Water heatedtoa'temperature cheese havebeen used, and it has been necessary 2 of about140to 160? I". is preierably'added to the toapply rather heavy coatings .oi' the composit cheese at thisstagealthough whey might be emtion to popcorn or crackers in order to produce ploycd instead} or the water. ,I'he addition of v the desired-cheese flavor. Furthermore. due to the cheese cools the water so that the cheese is the high temperatures to whiehthe cheese is s'ub-. not subjected to a high temperature-preferably iected in preparing these products,.the cheese in not above 1409-1". during the formation of the them was fairly high in separated fiat, in the emulsion. This cheese-water mixture or emuliorm oi globules of separated fat encased within sion prepared from the creamed cheese does not a layer of hardened casein. Thisis particularly have tobe homogenized, since a smooth creamy true with spray dried low moisture cheese. emulsion is obtained directly by the agitation. Our invention overcomesthe .diflcultles wi h Thisemulsion'oi cheese in water is then pref- P s h r ofore kn wn and one object is to erably-dried at a low temperature under a vacprovide 'a method of preparing dried cheese uum toavoid' heating the cheese any more than which 1111811111268 the W i 1' f l therein is necessary. For example, the cheese-water as globules coated with hardened casein. emulsion may be dried on any suitable vacuum Ano her Mee 18 to provide a sp yable cheese rolleroi known construction that "is 'heatedto a composition containingmore than of'chcese temperature or about 155 F. ,or less. The dried w y e p y d 11 8 only a normal cheese scraped from the vacuum ,roll is scraped amount oi pressure.

on in flake form having a moisture content pref.- Another object of this invention is to provide a cheese spray composition containing cheese 5 regulated for example to produce a final moismixed with an edible oil that is liquid atroom. ture' content in the flake cheese of around 4-to' temperatures which may be sprayed at a tem- 5% although theparticular moisture content is perature of 1'. or less. i v

A furt er Object is the provision f a Simp fi from the vacuum roll readily crumbles and may process of preparing cheese-rat or cheese-oil 50 be further broken up by gently'rubbing it through flavoringcompositions. a screen or in any otherjsuitable manner reducerably below 10%. Thedrying operation may be,

not critical. 1 The flaked dried cheese obtained a In the preparation of ourdrled cheese, and ing it to a finely divided state without subjectthe dried cheese thus p pared may beused for m itto temperatures above'about 1*. other purposes than incorporation with fat as The flaked finely divided dried cheese prepared a cheese spray mixture, the subjection oi the 55 as described above may be used in cheese fillings or various other preparations. It is especially suitable for mixing with an edible fat or oil in any suitable manner to provide a high quality cheese spray mixture. The fat or oil'selected may be a clear liquid at room temperature or it may contain stearines and/or other fatty corn coanut oil. This mixture is a clear liquid without any trace of solids at room temperature. In general, the lower the viscosity of the oil used as a carrier, the more cheese can be satisfactorily incorporated with it, and the lower the spraying temperature may be.

While the exact manner of mixing the oil or fat with the cheese depends upon the oil or fat selected as ,a carrier and the final composition desired, we prefer to employ a relatively low melting point fat or oil and to divide the cheese to be added to the oil into several parts. For example, if a mixture containing 60. lbs. of dried cheese and 40 lbs. of an oil wholly liquid at 70 F, is to be made, we prefer to divide the cheese into three equal '20 lb. portions. The first por-' tion of cheese is added to the oil and well stirred at room temperatures and even with such a carrier, more than 50% of cheese could not be incorporated in the composition because of the nature of the cheese particles suspended in the fat. Such cheese particles were prepared and dehydrated at such high temperatures that a large portion of the particles consisted of cheese-fat surrounded with a case hardened coating of casein. When these particles were added to hot oil or fat, this casein becamefurther hardened and consequently the particles or globules could not be homogenized with the same results obtained according to our invention.

Our invention provides good quality, read ly sprayable compositions of cheese and oil which remain homogeneous although containing as much as 50 to 75% cheese. With such high cheese compositions, it is not necessary to apply into it to form a thick paste. This paste is then 7 homogenized to thoroughly. incorporate the cheese and the oil. This operation also increases the fluidity of the mixture. The next 20 lbs. of cheese is then added to the product thus obtained, well stirred'into it and this mixture homogenized. Finally'tlie third 20 lb. portion of cheese is stirred into the product and the whole mixture homogenized to obtain the 'fin al product.

Homogenization may be conveniently carried out by the 'use of a viscolizer or a colloid mill as will be well understood by those skilled in the art. When a colloid mill is employed and the oil used is entirely liquid at room temperature,

the cheese and oil may be mixed and colloidized without any heating. Where a viscolizer is employed, however, using a, pressure of around 2,500 lbs. per square inch for example, we prefer to heat the oil before the cheese is added in order to prevent clogging of the orifices of the viscolizer. For example, if the fat used is cloudy or partially solid at room temperature, or if it is fully solid at. room temperature, or with any fat or oil using a viscolizer, the oil is preferably heated to about 140 F. before the cheese is added. The addition of cheese to this heated oil reduces the temperature somewhat so that the mixture which is-yiscolizedis not heated much, if any, above 120 F. Whether the product obtained is homogenized in a heated or unheated condition, it may be run directly into the cans or other containers which can be immediately placed in a. cold room for storage. It is not necessary to agitate the material as it cools since the cheese and oil is so intimately mixed by our invention-that the=cheese will not separate from the carrier even at room temperatures.

In cheese spray mixtures heretofore known, it has been necessary to employ a fat which is solid as much of the mixture to crackers, popcorn, or.

the like to produce the desired cheese flavor as has been necessary heretofore. By this invention, a cheese spray mixture may be made with v a normally liquid oil as carrier thereby producing a product which can be readily sprayed at temperatures but little more than room temperature. For example, we have prepared cheese spray mixtures containing 0% cheese which could be sprayed with the usual pressures and spraying equipment on popcorn at a temperature of 90 F. Where a normally solid fat carrier is employed, this solid carrier combined with a solid cheese produces a mixture which even with smaller quantities of cheese requires heating to a much higher temperature of the order of 135 F. for spraying.

Cheese spray mixtures may be prepared in accordance with this invention, using an oil liquid at room temperature as a carrier, which are capable of flowing at room temperature and still remain homogeneous. These mixturesconsist essentially-of minutely divided particles of casein which remain uniformly suspended in a true blend of the liberated cheese fat and the oil carrier, even when this blend is in a liquid condition. As contrasted with the products previously known, the suspended solid particles of. our cheese spray mixtures are not readily discernible to the naked eye and do not settle out as a layer when the carrier remains liquid for some time. For these reasons, the compositions of this invention may be applied at lower temperatures and with greater ease to popcorn, crackers and the like.

The terms and expressions which we have employed are used as terms of descriptionand not of limitation, and we have no intention, in the use of such terms and expressions, of excluding any equivalents of the features shown and de-' scribed or portions thereof, but recognize that various modifications are possible within the scope of the invention claimed.

We claim:

, 1. A- method of preparing cheese flavorin comprising successively mixing increments of low moisture cheese that has been dried at tempera- 1 tures below about 140 F. with substantially anhydrous reflned edible oil and homogenizing .the oil and cheese mixture after theaddition of each v increment of cheese.

' 2. A method of preparing a cheese spray composition comprising forming an emulsion of cheese in water, drying said emulsion under a partial vacuum at a temperature not greater than F., adding a portion of said dried cheese to refined substantially anhydrous edible oil, homogenizing said oil and cheese, adding another portion of dried cheese to the-homogenized mass,

and homogenizing the mass. r 3. A method of preparing a cheese spray composition comprising oreaming and drying cheese at a temperature not greater than 140 F., add-' homogenizing said paste, and repeating the addition of cheese portions thereto and homogenizing until the desired proportion of cheese has been incorporated.

4. A method of forming a cheese spray composition comprising creaming cheese by extrusion, incorporating said cheese in water with agitation to form an emulsion, drying said emulsion on a vacuum roll at a temperature not greater than 140 F., adding about one part of said dried cheese to about two parts refined edible oil liquid at room temperatures to form a paste, homogenizing said paste to lower the viscosity thereof, and repeating the addition of cheese portions thereto and homogenizing until the desired proportion of cheese has been incorporated withthe oil.

5. A processor preparing a cheese spray composition comprising mixing successive increments of a dried cheese substantially free from fat globules encased in hardened casein with a quantity of a liquid refined substantially anhydrous ediole oiL'and homogenizing such mixtures vsufliciently to increase the fluidity thereof.

6. A process of preparing a cheese composition suitable for application toedible products by spraying comprising mixing successive incremerits of cheese that has been creamed by, extrusion under pressure and dried at a sufficiently low temperature to prevent the formation of fatglobules encased in hardened casein, with a quantity of a refined substantially anhydrous ediened casein, mixing a portion of said dried cheese with a quantity of refined edibleoil to form a paste, homogenizing said paste, mixing a further portion of said dried cheese with said homogenized paste, and homogenizing said mixture.

BERT A. JORDAN. FOREST H. CLICKNER.

ARTHUR B. EREKSDN. 

